The current trap into which the opposition, APC (All People’s Congress) finds itself today is a result of a long-gone blunder.
The blunder of choosing one man twice to run as the party’s presidential candidate for two consecutive elections is a big mistake on APC’s side.
Where were Ernest Koroma and others who should have entreated Samura Kamara to take the back seat and give the space to another candidate to take the driving seat.
A renowned political analyst, Ibrahim Bangura who spoke to this press said Samura Kamara ought to have stepped down after he lost the 2018 election to the incumbent, President Julius Mada Bio and give way to a new leadership.
Bangura further explained that if then flag-bearer, Samura Kamara was not ready to step down he should have been encouraged by the party elders to go give up the party’s leadership and create space for another flag-bearer who will take on the ruling party, SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) in the forthcoming 2028 election.
Sierra Leone’s political terrain, Bangura says, would have been a smooth one had APC presented a new candidate in 2023 in preparation for 2028.
A close observation of the two recent polls of 2018 and 2023 shows that President Julius Maada Bio has got used to defeating Samura Kamara in election and certain that he would defeat him again and again even if presented 100 times.
One of APC’s senior female politician, Dr. Sylvia Blyden observes an inferiority complex in Samura Kamara for Maada Bio who he served as Head of State during the NPRC (National Provisional Ruling Council) regime (1992-1996).
Although having first-time flag-bearers leaving the political stage is not a law, it is however a norm in post-war Sierra Leone with the people getting used to it.
The norm that flag-bearers who lose election after they are elected for the first time should step down and give way to a new flag-bearer is seemingly well nurtured in multi-party politics of Sierra Leone.
The norm started off with Eddie Turay who was APC’s presidential candidate that contested the 1996 elections with President Ahmed Tejan Kabba, Karefa Smart of UNPP (United National People’s Party) and Thaimu Bangura of PDP (People’s Democratic Party) among others.
Turay, the APC presidential candidate, stepped down and gave way to ex-President, Ernest Bai Koroma after he lost the presidential election but winning five parliamentary seats for APC.
The politicking continued with Ernest Koroma taking on late President Kabba in 2002 elections which Ernest Koroma lost but was still elected in APC’s National Delegates’ Conference in 2006.
Koroma subsequently won the election in 2007 when he ran against late Vice President, Solomon Ekuma Berewa.
Defeated in the 2007 polls, Berewa stepped down from his presidential candidate’s post and became an ex-officio member of his party, SLPP.
By virtue of his ex-officio membership, Berewa was just an ordinary party member who could only advise when issues arose but had no voting right.
Again, SLPP’s Constitution at that time provided that any presidential candidate who lost election should become ex-officio member and Berewa’s resignation from the party is in line with his party’s constitution.
Berewa’s departure from his seat created room for the emergence of Julius Maada Bio, flag-bearer of the SLPP taking on the incumbent, Ernest Koroma in 2012 but lost.
President Bio lost but never gave up, and his party saw him as a man of the moment as his contribution to the restoration of democracy between 1992 and 1996 was taken to every corner of Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leoneans, despite few criticisms, have always cherished democracy and wanted to see it flourish in the country.
Consequently, President Bio was re-elected in 2017 in an SLPP National Delegates’ Conference and challenged a new candidate, Samura Kamara while Koroma was just a caretaker President waiting to hand over power to the victor. President Bio eventually became winner of the elections defeating Samura Kamara of the opposition, APC, and the political trend ought to have continued for sanity to prevail in the politics of Sierra Leone.
The vast majority of the people expected the APC presidential candidate to have stepped down for a new candidate to emerge in the party and continue the political norm.
Inversely, Samura Kamara continued and ran again in 2023 election, a move that resulted into the post-election stalemate into which Sierra Leone has been trapped.
Samura Kamara who was lured into running two times without winning thought that 2023 should be his time, and should not pass without him being a President, an ambition he keeps deep within himself.
Samura Kamara initially succeeded in taking APC’s elected officials: parliamentarians and councilors out of parliament and councils respectfully across the country for three months thus bringing Sierra Leone to a sudden halt.
One party in parliament means no parliament, and there were questions about who will represent the people, make laws for the country, endorse government policies, approve budgets and provide oversight on government institutions for the people.
In such situation, the Commonwealth and ECOWAS parliaments cut off ties with Sierra Leone’s Legislature for three months, a factor that forced the Bio regime into a three-day mediation brokered by the international community.
The peace talks led into the signing of a document known as the Agreement for National Unity whose implementation is steadily being carried to ensure that what happen in 2023 election does happen again in 2028.
From the day, it was signed, there was a general feeling that the impasse between the two political sides had been settled.
The issue of the backlog, the release of “political detainees” and the discontinuation of “politically motivated court cases” were central to the dialogue.
Eventually, the APC parliamentarians and councilors returned to parliament and councils and worked full-time with the ruling party hoping that it would be an easy pushover for them in the 2028 polls.
As if there would be no election contest, almost every APC member and supporters is confident that President Julius Maada Bio would hand over power to them in 2028.
This belief is strong among them so much that they would accept or approve every law or policy of the ruling party. APC contributed immensely to the passage of most of the laws which is biting them today with the APC scribe, Lansana Dumbuya recently falling victim under the Political Parties Regulation Commission’s law.
Even When erstwhile SLPP Chairman, Dr. Prince Alex Harding says his party will not hand over power to “mad men” (APC politicians), members of the opposition party were complacent, comfortable and happy about everything owing to hopes that have been battered and shattered by the Bio regime.
The relationship between SLPP and APC parliamentarians became watertight when backlog salaries were paid to the latter. In what appears a very strong SLPP/APC alliance, the APC executive can go as far inviting police officers to their party headquarters to hound grassroots supporters, and place them in cells.
But, recently there was a sudden twist of events when APC realizes that the 2028 elections would not be different from what transpired in the 2023 election as is now being exemplified by the leadership and other desperados of the ruling SLPP party.
The SLPP stance was crystallized by the appointment of Edmond Alpha Chief Electoral Commissioner to conduct 2028 election, a move that resulted into a boycott staged by opposition parliamentarians.
Opposition supporters claimed that their party was not properly consulted and same time doubted the neutrality of the new Election boss when spotted celebrating with SLPP members immediately following his approval by parliament.
The boycott is now almost a month, and calls for the APC grassroots to take to the streets have been widespread, but the people are not moved since they no longer have trust in their party leaders and elders.
The grassroots supporters believe that their candidate, Samura Kamara win the June, 2023 election and accuse the party executive of selling out their votes to the ruling party, an allegation APC executive has hardly come out to defend.
Now, Samura Kamara has gone twice in the election and thinks this time is his time to rule, while President Julius Maada Bio could not afford to rule for just one term, and this was the bone of contention.
President Bio’s predecessors Ahmed Tejan Kabba and Ernest Bai Koroma ruled twice in a row, and President Bio was asking himself: Why not me?